The same global close-mindedness is showing in respect of global economic affairs. Under several different synonyms — re-shoring, on-shoring, in-shoring, back-shoring or near-shoring — leading economies which historically preached and sold to us the wondrous benefits of globalisation are now giving their back to global trade, thus undermining international trade and the collaborative ethos which underpin global peace and solidarity. The economic correlative to armed global blocs are these exclusive and exclusionary economic blocs which also become fortresses against international trade, and which mete out collective economic sanctions against countries whose politics the blocs dislike or contest.
By hindsight, we should have seen this selfish close-mindedness creeping in. The global Covid-19 pandemic revealed a world retreating from a collective approach to global challenges.
We witnessed callous hoarding of vaccines, especially against the vulnerable South. Equally, Glasgow and previous climate summits showed that countries most culpable for damaging our planet were the least ready to admit to it, let alone pay for, or even share technologies towards its repair. And as the conflict in Eastern Europe is again showing, they do not hesitate to renege on previous climate-saving benchmarks for selfish national reasons.
Even Donald Trump whom we misread as a political maverick in fact gave us a glimpse into things to come through his “America First” mantra. It now turns out Trump was the biblical “John the Baptist” who proclaimed a world to come, without anyone heeding. We now know Trump’s agenda was in fact bi-partisan and thus American. All these were tell-tale signs of a disintegrating world order we should have heeded.
Zimbabwe has to locate itself and survive within this torrid global environment as it daily unravels. The environment is not about, or likely, to change.
We have to adjust to this new normal of wars, militarisation, global pandemics, climate change and a broken international system. These overbearing global adversities are increasingly obtruding into our local circumstances. It requires skilful navigation so we do not ram into dangerous global ecosystem of intricate, interlocking icebergs.
One Nation we can turn to for salutary lessons is India. In the wake of the raging global Covid-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced what he termed “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”, or Self-Reliant India Campaign. The campaign rests on the following five pillars:
- Economy
- Modern infrastructure
- Technology-driven systems
- Vibrant demography and,
- Local Demand
It suggests a raft of reform measures focusing on Land, Laws, Labour and Liquidity, with India redirecting its savings and financial prowess (Liquidity) towards improved Agriculture (Land); developing tertiary skills in its workforce for a technology-driven Economy (Labour) and, to simplify its regulations to stimulate more start-ups, and small-to-medium enterprises (Laws).
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